Urban

When Luann Carra brings work home, she doesn't commute far. She takes a few steps from her gift shop into her kitchen. Her store, Zoe's Garden, is in what 11 years ago was the living and dining room of her Fells Point home. "I can do business stuff on the kitchen island," she said. But she also can whisk work away quickly and prepare dinner there. Or relax on the futon and watch TV. Neighborhood friends are a customer base. "People know that I live here," she said. "People will knock and I'm in my pajamas.

Ghostwalk By Rebecca Stott The New Yorkers By Cathleen Schine Farrar Straus Giroux/Sarah Crichton Books / 304 pages / $24 The world is composed of cat people and dog people and they know who they are. The urban landscape is rife with dog owners and their pets; dogs often appear to be the mortar that keeps an otherwise alienated and aloof citizenry connected. In Cathleen Schine's sharp, poignant and witty new novel, one might well ask, "Who let the dogs out?" On a tidy and tony little block off Central Park, in the great dog-eat-dog world of uptown Manhattan, people move in and out of their urban anomie led by their pooches, who seem to have a far keener sense of the necessity for human (and canine)

During her four years at Mount de Sales, Christy Urban has been known to be many things in softball.Mostly, though, she's been a stopper, and yesterday Urban was stellar again as the eighth-ranked Sailors beat No. 10 Seton Keough, 2-0, in a Catholic League game at the Catonsville Senior Center.Three days earlier, Urban's four-hitter had gone for naught in a loss to Archbishop Spalding, but she came back even stronger yesterday, allowing just one hit and retiring 15 of the last 16 batters for her 11th complete game of spring.

URBAN and Virginia Linn figured they had a good idea of what to expect financially in retirement.Urban, a mathematics statistician at the former Martin Marietta Corp. before retiring in 1989, was familiar with budgeting and investments. Virginia, who retired three years ago at 64, had seen the financial issues facing seniors through her job at Baltimore's Commission on Aging.Still, the Baltimore couple had a few surprises. Virginia was shocked by the federal tax bite. Urban was struck by ever-rising insurance rates and the switch to a fixed income.

"Homicide: Life on the Street" may have been canceled, but the theme of violence in Charm City lives on in the two most recent Baltimore Playwrights Festival openings.The more effective of the two is "Urban Breakdowns," produced by Mobtown Players at Fell's Point Corner Theatre and written by Mimi Teahan. An assistant public defender in Baltimore city, Teahan also wrote about urban violence in her previous full-length festival entry, 1996's "Realtime."In "Urban Breakdowns," she focuses on a young couple in a Baltimore apartment building.

Carroll County prosecutors moved to drop theft charges against an Eldersburg man known as "Mr. Memorabilia," based upon psychiatric evaluations, but vowed to revive the case if they find sports collectibles he took on consignment.Dozens of theft charges against Robert G. Urban have been placed on the inactive docket in Carroll County District Court, said Assistant State's Attorney Jerome Joyce, noting that the defendant has been evaluated as not criminally responsible by three psychiatrists, most recently in December.

Player of the YearChristy Urban, Mount de Sales, senior, pitcher: There were probably more overpowering hurlers than Urban, but consistency was what set her apart. The player of the year in the Catholic League, Urban was 15-6 for Mount de Sales with a 1.02 ERA and 134 strikeouts in 154 innings. A three-time All-Catholic League selection, Urban also batted .339 with 14 RBIs and scored 12 runs. "The biggest thing about Christy is her attitude and she's relentless on the field," said Mount de Sales coach Pete Waskiewicz.

CAN YOU IMAGINE Baltimore without Harborplace? Or the Baltimore-Washington corridor without the vibrant community of Columbia? Or the nation without enclosed shopping malls that are America's new Main Street?A half-century ago, none of those projects were on our radar screen. The vision, business acumen and salesmanship of James Wilson Rouse, the Eastern Shore-born developer extraordinaire, put all these landmarks on the map.Rouse thought on a grand scale. And because his ideas bore fruit, he became the country's most important real estate developer in the second half of the 20th century.

A refuge for Albanian Kosovars. A staging area for the 2012 Summer Olympics. A "healing garden" for the city. A retirement community. A facsimile of Venice, complete with canals.Those are just a few of the ideas that architects, landscape architects, planners and urban designers have proposed to reinvigorate the blighted area north and east of the Johns Hopkins medical campus in Baltimore.They are among the more than 80 entries submitted this spring in an international design competition titled "New Strategies for the Undercrowded Baltimore Neighborhood: Encouraging Neighborhoods of Choice and Diversity."

More than half a century ago, Doris Auer left the rowhouse where she was born on Penrose Avenue in West Baltimore, walked down Pulaski Street and entered the convent of the Sisters of Bon Secours.The woman who became Sister Urban is 77, and she is still in the neighborhood as the oldest working sister at Bon Secours Hospital.As her order celebrates its 175th Jubilee, Sister Urban embodies the mission of the Sisters of Bon Secours to bring compassionate healing to those in need.Although the sisters made a gut-wrenching decision in July to end inpatient care at Liberty Medical Center, they are determined to maintain their commitment to serving needy families in West Baltimore at Bon Secours Hospital, which opened its doors 80 years ago."

"The Wire" ended nearly two years ago, but conversation about the show set in Baltimore is still going strong - particularly on American college campuses. When a noted Harvard sociology professor recently announced he was planning a course based on the HBO series about Baltimore's urban dysfunction, the university became the latest in a string of prestigious schools to study the drama. Creator David Simon, reached this week in New Orleans, where he's filming his new series, called the academic consideration of his work "gratifying."

THURSDAY HIGH ZERO FESTIVAL: These classically trained and self-taught musicians think way outside the box. Their avant-garde improvisations can be heard around Baltimore through Sunday. Though it might sound like noise to some listeners, these performers are visionaries whose exploration of the fringe will one day influence the mainstream. Thursday performances start at 8:30 p.m. sharp. Tickets are $10-$12. Go to highzero.org. 'THE MERCY SEAT': Neil LaBute's play takes place the day after 9/11 and concerns two World Trade Center workers who survive the attacks and consider using the event as a means of escape to start a new life together.

In choosing Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan for secretary of education this week, President-elect Barack Obama tapped a leader with demonstrated hands-on experience navigating the pitfalls of urban public policy debates and the conflicting demands of rival political constituencies. Mr. Duncan, a Harvard graduate and longtime ally of Mr. Obama's, has headed Chicago's public school system since 2001, where he earned a reputation for moving forcefully to improve troubled schools without alienating teachers and their unions.

Let's take a broader view of the issue The Sun presented in letters to the editor as "Open space fight roils Roland Park." Keswick Multi-care Center desires to build a high-end senior living facility, including 225 independent-living units, 58 assisted-living units and 40 beds for residents in need of skilled nursing. Across the street from Keswick's current facilities, Hekemian & Co. desires to develop the many acres of impervious surface that surround the Rotunda shopping center, including residential units (302 apartments, 44 condos and 12 townhouses, according to the last publicly available description)

Perhaps the country tag is a misnomer. On their joint national tour, which filled 1st Mariner Arena on Wednesday night, Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood sounded more like pop-rock stars. The "country" elements of their music were faint at best. But that didn't mar their performances. Underwood opened the show, backed by a loud, eight-piece band that threatened to overwhelm her platinum pipes. Sashaying around the stage in a black minidress and vampish spike-heeled boots, the radiant Oklahoman and former American Idol invoked more of Pat Benatar than Shania Twain.

When Luann Carra brings work home, she doesn't commute far. She takes a few steps from her gift shop into her kitchen. Her store, Zoe's Garden, is in what 11 years ago was the living and dining room of her Fells Point home. "I can do business stuff on the kitchen island," she said. But she also can whisk work away quickly and prepare dinner there. Or relax on the futon and watch TV. Neighborhood friends are a customer base. "People know that I live here," she said. "People will knock and I'm in my pajamas.

Almost six years after 9/11, we Americans find ourselves hip-deep in dollars spent on homeland security with very little to show for it. The responsibility for such malfeasance lies with those who led us to fixate on fighting terrorism globally while leaving our nation highly vulnerable to terrorists. We suggest a new path. Establishing a Department of Homeland Security, however incomplete, has been no small task. More than 40 federal organizations have been administratively joined, countless pages of regulations and guidance have been issued, and billions in grants have been dispensed to state and local governments.

Ghostwalk By Rebecca Stott The New Yorkers By Cathleen Schine Farrar Straus Giroux/Sarah Crichton Books / 304 pages / $24 The world is composed of cat people and dog people and they know who they are. The urban landscape is rife with dog owners and their pets; dogs often appear to be the mortar that keeps an otherwise alienated and aloof citizenry connected. In Cathleen Schine's sharp, poignant and witty new novel, one might well ask, "Who let the dogs out?" On a tidy and tony little block off Central Park, in the great dog-eat-dog world of uptown Manhattan, people move in and out of their urban anomie led by their pooches, who seem to have a far keener sense of the necessity for human (and canine)

Vernon D. Swaback had time to kill four nights ago, so he strolled the downtown lakefront. "You know what was missing?" he asked rhetorically. "People," he answered after a pause. Although he is an admirer of Columbia - "it's a rare place" - Swaback, a renowned urban designer, also said it is disappointing because it has failed to evolve. "Given the opportunity of Columbia, the place right now should be more than it is," he said in an interview. "I don't know, with the exception of adding new buildings and maintaining them, how much of an idea has been added to anything beyond that which was really put together in the 1960s.

Peter Salins came to Baltimore last week to posit a simple but significant question: "Have U.S. cities turned the corner?" The answer he gave -- at a seminar sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University's Institute for Policy Studies -- was a qualified yes. "I believe there is a seismic shift taking place in urban America, and for the most part it is a beneficial one," said Salins, an urban scholar and vice chancellor of academic affairs of the State University...